Buy a 10 game package, get 20% off video game consoles and games. Then market fun crazy new games, such as "Hungry Hungry goalie" a hybrid between pacman and hungry hungry hippo, only involving goalies. Or "Kovalnutz" in which in homage to the commercial, Kovalchuk and other NHl stars chase a puck through suburbia, in a cross between a skateboarding game and Grand theft auto. Or "The Legend of Sidna" in which you have to chase Sidney Crosby around and deflect things from falling on his head, all while completing your mystical quest to find an ancient treasure and defeat the evil Garynondorf.
You market it to kids, and tie that marketing into more public-service / charity work with those kids and their families. Investing in a new generation of fans is easier than trying to convert people who've grown up as NBA, NFL or MLB fans. Marketing roller hockey as a "gateway to the ice" would also be beneficial in markets where ice is hard to come by.
Thank you. Also, do you know how expensive it is to get out of NHL leases are?
In order to alleviate lawsuits and voiding of various contracts, the cost to fold an NHL team would likely be a minimum of $500 million.
The cost to relocate one who just signed a 30-year lease that hinges upon actually staying in town would likely be in that same area, if not higher.
Still, great idea. Market the NHL to new groups of fans by taking two teams and (undoubtedly) putting them in areas where the NHL needs no introduction. That would be like introducing deep-dish pizza to a new audience by opening up a pizzeria in the heart of Chicago.
In order to alleviate lawsuits and voiding of various contracts, the cost to fold an NHL team would likely be a minimum of $500 million.
The cost to relocate one who just signed a 30-year lease that hinges upon actually staying in town would likely be in that same area, if not higher.
Still, great idea. Market the NHL to new groups of fans by taking two teams and (undoubtedly) putting them in areas where the NHL needs no introduction. That would be like introducing deep-dish pizza to a new audience by opening up a pizzeria in the heart of Chicago.
I bet that pizzeria would make a hell of a profit if it offered a reasonably competitive profit. Marketing doesn't necessarily mean expanding into new markets, it can also mean maximizing profits in existing markets (ie. if a second team in Montreal could make a greater profit than a team in Phoenix, it may make sense to market a second NHL team to Montrealers)
(Not a fan of relocation by the way, just trying to have some healthy discussion)
I bet that pizzeria would make a hell of a profit if it offered a reasonably competitive profit. Marketing doesn't necessarily mean expanding into new markets, it can also mean maximizing profits in existing markets (ie. if a second team in Montreal could make a greater profit than a team in Phoenix, it may make sense to market a second NHL team to Montrealers)
(Not a fan of relocation by the way, just trying to have some healthy discussion)
Profit isn't the be-all-end-all for this type of marketing though. If the NHL's problem is too few people knowing it exists, too few people being exposed to it, and too few people playing it (as we would all agree), then...
Moving teams would be exactly like trying to sell cheesesteaks in Philadelphia, deep-dish pizza in Chicago, or baked beans in Boston. 20 years ago, the idea of an average American pounding down mounds of rice and fish would have been unthinkable, and yet nearly every city of any size has sushi restaurants today. Why? Because entrepreneurs saw massive untapped markets between the coasts, a stigma attached to the product ("Isn't sushi just raw fish?" "Am I eating fish, or the bait?"), and still went full steam ahead. 75 years ago, pizza was non-existent outside of Italian neighborhoods. 50 years ago, Mexican food was non-existent outside of those neighborhoods.
Sure, there's merit to internal expansion and consolidation. But is a second team in Montreal going to make more kids take up the sport? If there's one pizza shop in town and it sucks, then a second pizzeria that makes a different product can capture a market, but is a hatred or apathy toward the Canadiens actually keeping kids from playing hockey? Is the lack of a second team in the GTA causing parents to forbid their kids from playing, or preventing thousands of people from watching hockey?
"Non-traditional" teams are making inroads to the locals. Ohio had three first-round picks in the 2011 draft alone. California has produced an increasing number of both prospects and high-end prospects. Arizona has a couple, and more areas that traditionally have either poor or no player history are starting to produce. That's what happens when a new product meets an untapped market.
How bout rule changes? What rule changes could make the game more exciting?
I definitely think if we got rid of the instigator rule, hockey would be so much better
Crack down, don't be afraid to call more power plays, and watch the offense increase.
It astounds me how few people here seem to actually remember hockey before the instigator rule. The fact that there was decent hockey played during those years was merely an accident; the lack of the instigator didn't "open up the game" or "maintain respect". The instigator is almost never called in today's game, and yet we see threads every single night during the season with titles like "Why do players keep jumping a guy for making a clean hit?"
Have Skrillex blasting in the background all game long at every game, plus dim the lights a bit and add in a bunch of laser lights and ****. Every game would be one big rave.
Market it like the NFL markets itself. Ditch the NBA star-driven model and focus on teams; their rivalries, their histories, etc.
One reason for this is that hockey is a sport where the players wear helmets. Like it or not, this separates the individual player from the fan, but it connects the team closer to the fan.
Also, like it or lump it, NHL players generally lack personality. There are no real "evil" players, or witty players. And to be honest, when you do see the occasional burst of individualism its either looked down on because it's so out of the norm, or squashed entirely because it angers the traditionalists which seem to dominate hockey.
The NHL has some weird dichotomy where it attempts to market individual teams, but at the same time goes out of its way to squash any form of individuality in players. That needs to stop.
They need to get more players. The NHL has plenty of fans. Popularity grows witht he players. I don't have to walk far to see a bunch of kids playing basketball, football, baseball. Now hockey, you don't see that everyday.
They have to get to the cities somehow. That's where the people are.
Now there's alot of fans in the big cities, but a large majority of the American players are coming suburban areas, especially in New York and Massechusetts. You're not gonna see any NHL players from Brooklyn, they're all from Rochester, Buffalo, and Syracuse.
That's why so many people were *****ing about having Drake as entertainment at the all-star game but I thought it was good for the sport to do something like that.
Drake is from Forest Hill, one of the top 2 neighborhoods in Toronto, I just sold my Loft there and I can tell you, it is no Brooklyn, more Mass and the Upper East side.
Put PK Subban everywhere. And I'm not kidding in the slightest. Easy to hate him on the ice; easily the most marketable and accessible player I've ever seen off the ice. Clearly a GOOD dude with his head on his shoulders straight, a good sense of humor and an exciting skill set to match. PK Subban should, with all seriousness, be one of the most marketed players in the NHL.
Things like that will go a lot further than moving struggling franchises into locations that have a 'maybe' interest in supporting an NHL team. The league has done a horrible job of capitalizing on individual personalities within the NHL.
I agree with The Gourmet about being a team driven, rather than star driven league. That is probably some of the best advice in this thread so far.
Also, if this is a marketing assignment your doing, then you have no business at all to talk about relocation. The marketing side of the business does not get to decide what cities get NHL teams. Gary Bettman does not market the game, he is the commissioner. He makes business decisions, and represents the owners.
You, as a merketing guy in this cenario, have to find a way to sell hockey to the people in Phoenix, not sell the hockey team away from Phoenix. The marketing team for Oreo cookies doesn't decide on the recipe, they pick the colour of the box.
Moving on, I think the other thing you mentioned about introducing street hockey heavily to urban areas is a good one. Focus on things like this. Get some grass roots programs going to grow the brand in with youth. Take advantage of some of the successfull advertising that the NHL already has ("there are no words" commercial), and ditch the ideas that don't work (the guardians project).
One marketing venture that really worked on me as a kid were the hockey cards. Even just the ones given away at McDonalds were just awesome. It gives kids something really fun, it teaches them about the game and its players, and it is pretty cheap to make. Video games are also a great way to get young people interested.
I'd package an insanely ridiculous 3 highlight per second reel for a minute to make a commercial and at the end, words say:
THERE WILL BE MORE
Air everywhere with a set of certain players for specific roles. One commercial for fighting, one for snipes, others for playmaking, hitting and shootouts.
Seizures may ensue.
Last edited by AmazedRink: 11-16-2012 at 02:11 PM.
Canada needs their version of that television show 'the league'. The Canadian version would be about hockey and fantasy hockey while giving real players cameos and exposing themselves to a bigger fanbase
"Hello, we are the NHL. We're a niche demographic, but we pretend like we're not. Hockey is difficult to get into houses because it costs thousands of dollars per year, compared to other sports whose startup costs include the price of a ball and some empty lot to play on. However, we are unilaterally the most awesome sport on the planet.
